In a new essay for ‘Harper’s Bazaar,’ Serena Williams has addressed the controversy surrounding her performance in the U.S. Open final last year, when she lost to tennis player Naomi Osaka.
Williams, who holds records for medaling in the Olympics and winning 39 Grand Slam titles, described feeling “defeated and disrespected” by the incident.
During the second set of the September 2018 match, the umpire, Carlos Ramos, gave Williams a violation because he believed he saw her coach signaling her, which is against the rules of tennis. As she said at the time, Williams writes in the essay that she wasn’t looking for signals. “I don’t cheat to win. I’d rather lose,” she said. (Her coach later did say that he was trying to…